Married at First Sight Australia 2023 fans have called out Alyssa Barmonde for being “toxic” and “emotionally abusive” to her TV husband, Duncan James.
During the March 20 episode, the single mother’s expectations about her relationship with the 36-year-old dreamboat finally came to light, much to the shock of Duncan and everybody watching at home.
The executive assistant, 35, repeatedly contradicted herself, telling Duncan about her unyielding schedule in front of her own support network, despite complaining that he opened up about his emotions in front of everybody during the Commitment Ceremony.
It came after Duncan said he felt “more rejected in this relationship than any relationship [he’d] been in” last week.
When he revealed how upset he was at the Commitment Ceremony, Alyssa didn’t validate his emotions. Instead, she got upset that he didn’t share it with her first.
Maybe he would have, hun, if you didn’t dramatically walk away from every goddamn conversation!
“It feels like you’re now hurt because I was talking about how I was hurt. How is that encouraging me to share emotions?” Duncan pointed out at Skye Suites, while the other couples packed to go to their hometowns.
Married at First Sight’s Duncan James finally finds out about Alyssa Barmonde’s plans for their relationship
The couple remained in Sydney for homestay week, where Duncan was soon being quizzed about Alyssa’s priorities yet again.
After being questioned by Alyssa’s friends, Duncan reconfirmed he wasn’t “concerned” that her first priority would still be her child, rather than their relationship.
“I think I’ve said that sentence probably 20 times in this experiment,” he claimed.
But for the first time, Alyssa finally got down to the nitty-gritty details of how often she’d be able to see Duncan… despite the couple living just 20 minutes away from each other.
She claimed that her busy schedule allowed her to see her partner “every Wednesday” and “every other weekend”.
Married at First Sight fans questioned whether Alyssa had decided that Duncan wouldn’t be in her child’s life at all, despite the experiment fast-tracking their relationship.
Meanwhile, others were just baffled at how she managed to appear on MAFS with such a tight schedule.
Married at First Sight’s Duncan James reveals his concerns about their “part-time relationship”
Duncan – who was clearly shocked by Alyssa’s busy timetable – explained that he would have to reflect on how he felt about the situation.
He later told his sister Renee: “Alyssa gets to decide when we see each other. That’s based on her schedule. I don’t get to decide.”
With Renee’s encouragement to talk things out, Duncan took Alyssa out on a boat for a romantic AF date on the harbour.
After several (much appreciated) shots of Duncan looking beautifully windswept, he finally asked Alyssa why she waited so long to tell him about her planned “part-time relationship”.
“If that’s your idea of a healthy relationship, that scares me,” he admitted.
MAFS viewers were glad that Duncan could recognise the signs of the toxic relationship, with some even comparing Alyssa’s behaviour to serial gaslighter Harrison Boon.
“Yeah we haven’t been perfect, we’ve had some really tough times over the past couple of weeks but that doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed them. This is probably the healthiest relationship I’ve been in,” Alyssa later revealed.
“I’m more confused than I was at the start of the day,” Duncan told the cameras. Yeah, babe, us too!
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